Internal combustion engines (ICE) are often called upon to generate considerable levels of power for prolonged periods of time on a dependable basis. Many such ICE assemblies employ supercharging or gas compressor assemblies to compress the airflow before it enters the combustion chambers of the engine in order to increase power and efficiency. Such supercharging assemblies can be driven mechanically, electrically, or via an exhaust gas generated by the engine.
Typically, central to such a supercharging assembly is a compressor that forces more air and, thus, more oxygen into the combustion chambers of the ICE than is otherwise achievable with ambient atmospheric pressure. The additional mass of oxygen-containing air that is forced into the ICE improves the engine's volumetric efficiency, allowing it to burn more fuel in a given cycle, and thereby produce more power.
Frequently, such supercharging assemblies also employ pressure relief valves, a.k.a., bypass or blowoff valves, arranged aft of the compressor to release excess pressure from the engine's intake tract and prevent compressor surge. By preventing surge, a pressure relief valve reduces wear on the gas compressor assembly and the engine. Specifically, such valves relieve the damaging effects of compressor “surge loading” by allowing the compressed air, in the case of blowoff valves, to vent to the atmosphere or, in the case of compressor bypass valves, to recirculate into the intake tract upstream of the compressor inlet.